Your source for electronic music in Washington, DC. Club Glow produces concert and lounge events with the top names in house, electro, trance, techno and more. Experience EDM as it was meant to be at select Echostage concert events and every Thursday at Josephine.

Relax, relax. We’re just asking a question.

We can’t help but notice that trance has taken a back seat lately to other styles of EDM, most notably “big room, melodic” house and dubstep. A genre that grew during the late 90’s and peaked in the 00’s, trance may be falling victim to new tastes from a new generation of fans.

Many top trance DJ/producers have seen the shift and adjusted accordingly. Some might say they’re growing as artists. Concert promoters seem to be booking less trance and gambling on rising house acts. Trendy music blogs feature the melodic, big room house and dubstep sounds young fans crave. When was the last time you saw a track by Mark Sherry or John Askew on besthousemusicblogever.com? More importantly, how many of you know who John Askew and Mark Sherry are?

“Trance goes where it will go. Whether it’s evolving or not, it always stays appealing to its listeners. People have to adapt over time, so does the music. Its purpose, however, which is high-quality entertainment, will never go away.”

– Ferry Corsten

While house and techno have been at the forefront of dance music since Frankie Knuckles (Chicago) and The Belleville Three (Detroit); Balearic/Ibiza trance definitely rose to the top. Guys like Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Judge Jules and Paul van Dyk were at the forefront. Of course, house and techno will always be staples of dance music.

Maybe in 20 years trance will be seen as, dare we say it, just a fad?

Tiesto in 2001

The annual DJ Magazine Top 100 Poll, although slandered by many as just a popularity contest, nevertheless shows who and what’s hot in dance music. Tracking the DJ Mag Top 100 since 1997 shows that house and techno have always been at the top. Guys like Carl Cox, Sasha, John Digweed, Roger Sanchez, Erick Morillo, Steve Lawler and Richie Hawtin are always there. The only trance guy to hold that distinction is Paul van Dyk.

PvD, Sasha, Digweed and Cox have been in in every single DJ Mag Poll. Paul van Dyk was #42 in ’97, top 6 from ’98-’10 (two #1s) and #11 in ’11. Sasha & Digweed were definitely more trancey back in the day, but recently have moved more toward proggy house and techno.

Tiesto in 2011

Besides 1997 (Carl Cox) and 2011 (David Guetta), the #1 DJ in the world has always been a trance guy. Whether that’s because house and techno fans don’t care to vote or because Oakenfold, Sasha, Digweed, Tiesto, Pvd and Armin van Buuren have the most loyal fans; is another question all together.

The top 25 has always been pretty split between house/techno and trance. Trance usually wins out by a couple DJs but no biggie, right? But now, with guys like Sander van Doorn and Ferry Corsten going outside the box and Tiesto leaving trance completely, it’s tough to classify what style anyone is.

“For me [2011] was a changeover year. I made a big change in my style of music.”

The concept of EDM genres is a double-edged sword. On one side, fans need to distinguish artists (trance, tech-trance, big room house, underground, minimal, techno, slowmo, tech-house, electro, dutch, etc.) On the other side, artists don’t want to be boxed in. But hey, if you produce electro and spin techno you’re gonna confuse and piss off fans. If you produce a bit of everything it’s almost too much to grasp. Daft Punk, Moby and Diplo have done amazing jobs of not being boxed in while achieving massive success.

We’re thinking all those sub genres are the reason house has always been the most polarizing style of dance music.

“When anything becomes so popular it tends to be diluted and judged and categorized, but that’s where we come in. Electronic music is electronic music, simple. For me it’s either house or techno, both determine the essence of its nature, hard or groovy. But that’s my world and what I surround myself with. I wouldn’t personally put trance into either of those but that’s because I don’t listen to it.”

Trance has lost its variety; its freshness; its spark. House has spread and evolved.

*”The trance formula has been overdone. The synths defined trance, but the kick and bass are what the masses respond to. Trance was always about the journey. Since the masses require instant gratification, gone are the ‘building’ tracks… gone is the journey. It’s been replaced by bangers. But bangers don’t put you in… a state of trance.

Eventually so many people had home studios the genre became diluted. Beat + same old VSTs + catchy vocals = hit. People felt the saturation and tried to reinvent the wheel, giving way to trouse; big room, melodic; etc. These new styles of house are what’s popular. That’s where the mainstream thinks they need to go. Trance will probably go back to its roots and wait. It may not be ready for a revival just yet.”

*Huge thanks to Jay Kinard (hitokiri on NY Trance Addict) for the contribution and hater-proofing treatment.

It’s important to remember that things move in cycles.

Some say all the new generation cares about is Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, Afrojack, David Guetta, etc. They say they love “house music,” but all they want to see are the “it” guys. If you loved house music you’d be as excited for Hernan Cattaneo and Sander Kleinenberg as you are for Thomas Gold and Dirty South. Are these fair weather fans? Or is that big room, melodic sound the new trance?

“I’ve never actually been into trance, so I’m trying to incorporate it into my sound now. And trance 2.0 for me is bringing the epicness of trance and fusing it with the grooviness and sexiness of electro house. “My G.O.D.” was trance 2.0 and I believe “Turbulence” is more on the harder side of things.”

– Laidback Luke

So we ask again, is trance dead? Was it just a popular fad? Is it as strong as ever and we’re just starting sh*t for no reason? Have the band wagoners jumped ship and started listening to “Levels” on repeat? Is Laidback Luke on to something? Did this shift start with the 2008 Kaskade and Deadmau5 collaborations? Does the massive rise in popularity of “house music” on college campuses have anything to do with it?

Trance is alive and well… the reason USTM was created was due to the rising interest. Trance purists may disagree and say the original sound is dying and evolving into a more commercial based sound.

Many of our favorite artists are branching into these “made up” genres [and it] concerns us true trance lovers. It makes us feel abandoned. I like to think of our group as more elite (underground) and shows we have a higher quality taste in music. I’m sure none of these big names really want to sell out, but are pressured by their managers, media, etc. It is what it is. I’m sure when they see dollar signs, they can’t refuse. I would rather not pay money to see these cheesy house productions with a slew of 16 year olds. Does this mean the true trance scene is dying? It’s more a matter of us original fans really picking and choosing wisely as to which live events we attend.

I truly believe any talent that labels his/herself as a “trance artist” should have the mindset to please themselves and the crowd with those emotional, goose-bumping, chilling tracks we all love so much. After all, that is what we call trance music, right!?

One of the most outspoken voices in Trance regarding the shift in sound has been John “00” Flemming:

“The commercial storm seems to have eventually past; the Trance scene has been left battered and bruised. It’s tired, jaded and lost all dignity. This storm has created utter confusion amongst the residents of the Trance community, the skills, tools and talent they had adhered over the years were completely overlooked and deemed insignificant, replaced with egotistical bullish marketing. This once great music genre attracted the elite producers of the World who produced forward thinking avant-garde music. This in return attracted Hollywood movie directors such as the Matrix whom used Trance music for its sound track. Consequently Progressive Trance was born; Sasha, Digweed and Way out West playing a big part in this (many people reading this wont remember these wonderful proud great days).

House, Electro and Dubstep are now King, and the storm have moved in that direction. The corporate are abandoning the sinking Trance ship and heading for where the money now lies dropping their now worthless Trance tag. ‘None genre’ seems to be the new trend now, along with Trouse as they abandon ship. So how does that make us true Trance musicians feel.

The ones that have dedicated our lives to this genre we feel so passionate about. Angry? Bitter? I think relived is the right word. We can now get on with the job in hand of making music void of Internet marketing games, and presence. We’ve lost a few good men on the way though, shame how they got totally overlooked.

70 Responses to “Is Trance Dead?”

I would have to agree that Flemming. Trance isn’t dead; it will just go back underground. Let the mainstream have their new sounds. A similar situation with Drum and Bass/jungle getting set aside for Dubstep. It is unfortunate, but they will live on, and, in my opinion, go back to what made people fall in love with them in the first place. Let these new fads and “evolutions” rise and die, and then we can all get back to the good stuff.

im into house and techno more than trance. but i agree with what you just said. im looking forward to when this massive electro/ house/techno boom calms down and stops getting shat on my these shit pop poducers so we can all enjoy it underground like the old days!

This article is the most biased shit that i have read. It failed to mention one key player in TRANCE music. Love it or not AVB has made a HUGE impact on trance music. His weekly radio show is number one in all edm music. His events gather more crowds every year. North America is House everywhere else is Trance. Let north america have their house cheese. Ill stick to my Europe and their love for Trance. At least i wont see juce pig doosh bags at the parties I go to.

Oh and remixing a pop track and speeding up the bpm does not make you a super star dj (cough avicii cough)

Excuse me but I’m from North America and my influence is entirely based off of European influence, I now run my own label who pushes true Trance music and even though we may get laughed at by the commercial big names in the industry downplaying our sound as old and outdated which happens on the regular and mostly from the Euro zone Djs mind you. North American Trance culture is beginning to boom and boom proud, the United States Of Trance guys are leading the way on that and we have teamed with groups like “Team 140” and others to push our sound regardless of the constant blowback by the commercial crowd who consistently tell us we need to change, we need to evolve and to them I say, why? So I can please you and your Hollywood elite fan bases, the Avicci and Guetta fans, I think not. So please sir, before you trounce on North America labeling us with the Cheesy House tunes moniker, please watch carefully as we rise above that label and return to the roots of true Trance music. Thanks and have a good day

This actually makes sense from a Trance head’s perspective. I have loved Trance since I was around….13 years old (I am 18 now.). I was into the many artists encompassing Trance such as Ferry Corsten and Armin van Buuren (Present). But around 3 years ago I have started to hear the the 90’s-early 00’s Trance tracks and I have to say, I have been hooked ever since. It literally puts the Trance of now to shame a hundred times over. The way that the artists (Ferry & Armin) treat and talk about how Trance is changing though is really appalling in my opinion. Is what they’re saying a cause for their change OR for the hate that they’re getting? They DEFINITELY wouldn’t have said this in the 90’s-00’s where their music was universally liked. Some food for thought.

Great article, well balanced, and tackles many aspects of the question at hand. Some of us may not be able to swallow the truth, but what is described here can be applied to almost everything. The more you play things out, copy, recycle, and generally become unoriginal, the more you wear the fans out. Avicii – Levels is a fantastic track. It has great production value and it evokes that “feel good” feeling, but I can’t stand listening to it anymore. You can only take so much of the same thing (i.e., walking to three different stages at a massive and hearing the same track) before you start to hate it. Cycles are a part of life, everything has its ups and downs, but to prevent extreme cycles (people flocking from one genre to the next), it takes originality amongst the people who create the music. I guess that what seems to be lacking these days.

I personally have been in love with EDM since a very young age, i still remember those golden days between 2004 – 2008 where we had the most incredible productions in techtrance ohh how i miss does days, today i dont even mind looking in charts or forums, seems like all slightly has faded in to trouse in the past couple of years, how does svd goes from doing riff to his commercial bullcrap he is doing, just to think about it pisses me off, and how many artists did this shift, too much to actually mention, i hope it goes back to its origins and only the ones that really love this sound stay, unfortunately some dark days are ahead, but i look forward for it to go back underground.

I think it’s important to not conclude that the rising popularity of big-house artists is equitable with declining popularity amongst trance fans. It’s indisputable that house music a la Avicii, Afrojack, or Nicky Romero is taking root in an audience which had not listened to electronic music before it, and has achieved (certainly in the US) primacy in EDM. But this does not mean that trance is becoming less popular, as the majority of new house music listeners are not being drawn away from existing styles of electronic music (ie trance), but rather from hiphop, pop music, and alternative. Not to say that a person knowledgeable about EDM doesnt like melodic house, but the recent megapopularity enjoyed by house artists is largely a product of people listening to and enjoying dance music for the first time. Keeping this in mind, questions like “is trance dead?” are nothing short of ludicrous. One only has to look to the success of Above and Beyond’s Group Therapy Tour (even excluding locations outside the US) to affirm the presence and popularity of trance music. A&B solid out not one, not two, but three nights at the LA Coliseum, in addition to consistently selling out at venues from Portland to Miami. PVD may be a godfather of modern trance, but did he ever sell out the coliseum three nights in a row? Additionally, Anjunabeats 9 (Nov 2011), the most recent compilation of tracks from Anjuna’s trance label, was their biggest commercial success ever, being sold and downloaded more than any of their albums released during the above-called golden era of trance music. Afrojack and Avicii may be headlining some of the biggest music shows and festivals in the world but it would be erroneous to conclude that this means that house music is in and trance is out. The podcast Trance Around the World has over 30 million subscribers from 35 countries, a depth of audience penetration unparalleled by ANY house music artist. Well written article, but would be better titled as “Is there room for anything besides house?” than “Is trance dead?”.

dont get me wrong, i’ve seen trance in europe, in los angeles, and in the mid east. The only real trance comes mostly from europe from few djs. Its true that alot of the trance is mixed with house prog tech at raves festivals and shit. I got to all of them, I hardly missed anythin in the past 4 years in los angeles so I know how the music is changing. I used to party in europe mid east as well so I know whats going on with the trance music

ATB did a goodjob on spreading trance though. Even though hes not making any great new stuff, but hes still his old trance tracks along with old tracks that are are mixed for the new generation. so thats good

Just because a genre is becoming overlooked by the mainstream – or rather, our genre’s version of “mainstream” – doesn’t mean it’s dead by any means. As Fleming was quoted above, there are definitely some good artists that we’ve lost.. most notably Tiesto (which was before 2011, but you get my point). Hell, even Gareth Emery, who’s been releasing the cheesiest of cheese lately, made his dumbstep influence very apparent (along with Sander and others) during ASOT 550. So perhaps the loss or shift in genre by large names would seem to be an ‘abandon ship’ from people who only pay attention to those large names, but that gives plenty of room to others who are looking to keep it alive.

However, there’s still plenty of Trance around; to name a small few off the top of my head – Mike Foyle, Eco, MS54, Orjan, Danny Chen, and obviously Above & Beyond (Zoe’s professional songwriting is much needed in the genre). There’s even more if you’re willing to embrace Progressive, as well. Blake Jarrell has some great tunes (including remixes of off-genre tracks), and Luigi Lusini has become a favorite among the listeners of the Trance Out! channel on Turntable.fm.

I think a large problem is that we’ve become too reliant on big names to bring the big hits. It does scare me (as it seems to do for the rest of the community) that some of our bigger names are indeed branching out to other genres. Are they just experimenting, or are they looking to abandon their roots for the ‘next big thing’?

And I don’t know what Laidback Luke thinks he’s talking about, but there is no ‘Trance 2.0’. If Mainroom House is your thing, then fine; but don’t incorporate a “Trance beat” or handpick typical elements of the genre into your urban Electro sound and call it some evolution in the genre, as if you’re somehow doing us a favor.

Trance isn’t defined by BPM, it cannot be adequately caged in by technical aspects – Trance is a feeling, and it either ‘is’, or it isn’t. This new ADD-inspired Electronica, no matter what kind of backing synths you put into it, will never be Trance. And because of that, it will never die. Other people will simply take the spotlight and pursue the passion of making great music.

Wh-what? That doesn’t make any bit of sense. Maybe you’re referring to when Trance was just starting to break off from the early EDM scene and still had that sound?

Please provide a list of producers who you believe still keeps your version of Trance alive. Points are deducted for the use of any producer who creates grinding, hard to listen to tracks like Sander van Doorn or Cosmic Gate. Maybe you can bro out in a club to them, but that’s not what Trance means to a lot of people.

And he’s right those guys are producing bad tracks but they don’t have a big impact on the scene though its more of whole combination of artists he’s mentioned from labels such as Blackhole, Flashover, Armada and Anjunabeats even Enhanced has gone crap

The reason why Trance has taken a back step in fashion is because it’s so easy to make a big room house song out of sample packs. No musical knowledge is needed. Every kid is growing up and suddenly wants to make music due to guetya and shm being popular. They ain’t making house they are making pop music. Pop music is always going to be more listened to than trance!

With the current state of EDM I don’t really care as to what the “Go To” genre’s are. Trance was what got me into the scene so I will always remain loyal to it. I think these days with the saturation of new DJ’s/Producers its more of a pick and choose scenario. There are a lot more producers to choose from these days, but its still blatantly obvious who the better DJ’s are as you can really notice who can mix and who cannot.

Armin/Above&Beyond/John O’callaghan/Myon&Shane54/Ferry Corsten/Markus Schulz/Solarstone/Cosmic Gate are 100% the standouts as far as mixing in my opinion. Without a doubt Armin is still the #1 DJ.

But as far as who you listen to it is definitely changing at least for me. I try to listen with an open mind and pick and choose from a variety of genres.

Trance is in and will allways be in my heart, basically everything goes in circles in the long run. And people shift their taste for what is popular “and what other people like” when it comes to mainstream, but in the end the loyal listeners will allways stay. There will come new DJs that has been keen fans, and that blows it back alive in some years. Keep on dancing! 🙂

genres, sub-genres, BPMs whatever, fuck you! Music is much more than just the genres. If we left EDM as just EDM this would all just be bullcrap. Dont turn music into a battle field 4 fans, if they like the beat let them dance without rubbing it in their faces that its commercial.

Well on the article Trance is dead, no wonder Trance is laying idle when you give to a basic example of a 5/10 Trance track by John Askew, no wonder they wouldnt be interested, I mean that sound is irritating to sa ythe least.

First and foremost I wanna say I been listening to trance 10+ years now and I do understand the concensus on how the France genre has left the way of the old. But I hate how all you trance purists think that just bc now people like avb Gareth svd pvd are kinda switching their styles that trance is dying. Making music now as compared to back then

I’ve always been up-to-date with trance music. i always tuned for asot and corsten’s countdown. But a month or two i just stopped because i enjoyed none of them and i started to get back in time. From 2004 to the early 90’s. And i realized the earlier trance is the better. Songs like greece 2000, gouryella, carte blanche, age of love are million times better what is on nowadays. And now i can barely listen new trance music for eg shotgun and the new markus schulz loops n tings. i hate them. The truly trance rekeased in this year is the not well-known paper aeroplanes – winter never comes, and an andy duguid song. Trance is dying but i can focus on more to classics and discover “new” tunes.

It’s definitely not dead! Like many of the above comments noted, just because it’s been overlooked due to the enormous new popular sounds, does not mean it’s DEAD!!!!! Not to mention, it’s not so popular here but its HUGE in Europe as well as other places around the world!!! The US is JUST catching on to this whole electronic music scene so naturally, they are going to want to hear the huge hits, the poppy electro tunes, etc. In reality, they don’t tend/know how to appreciate the intricacy, detailed, beauty of trance…….maybe once they grasp the concept of this new genre of music, they will move on and learn about trance (which in my opinion should be considered a form of true ARTWORK!)

What they export out of their sequencer sounds like it was made in a couple seconds and dumb masses like it. It’s not trance or music. It’s white noise side chained with SHM stabs. No creativity or knowledge of music needed.

In the Begining there was Jack and Jack had a Grove, And it be like that till the end with House music! But every EMD has the time to shine. House started it back in the 80s, Techno was big in the 90s, Trance in the 90s and 00s Now its house again. Trance is not dead!

Thanks for this biased piece of journalism (if you want to call it journalism). You say house has such variety, but that is nothing more than a biased opinion since the pop/house acts are more popular at your club. Its obvious that house is more popular among the American crowd, and its not hard to see why. Its the closest thing to pop music the new generation of clubbers can get to! And this is coming from a person who enjoys a decent amount of progressive house music. I keep on hearing the same story: “trance sounds the same blah blah blah”. But to be honest a lot of people think all house music sounds the same.

I thought you would have more respect for the overall EDM scene considering the fact that you are a promoter of a club and everything. This article is utter trash.

I just want to mention one thing, is this now house style any close to the house that Danny tenaglia and other used to play back in the days any similiraty with this NEW style of house? So please don’t call this new crap of music that is so popular in USA house because what guetta, afrojack, etc are playing now IT IS NOT HOUSE name it something else but not house, house roots comes from African, Latin music and this new style of music sounds like broken machines mixed with pop songs to make popular

You know, it’s always, always americans who are so obseesed with this shit. and yet America is where just about any genre of electronic music comes to die; it’s where it truly becomes faddish, commercialized, seen and heard in every Hollywood film and every commercial for a brief period, getting milked right out of existence. The least qualified crowd to assess the state of any music is the States (unless its a genre born on your own grounds), so just leave it alone.

House music was born in Chicago. Techno was born in Detroit. Disco was born in the states too. I think jungle started in the states as well, but I’m not sure about that one. So I guess we can assess the state of most electronic music, right?

1- Trance has lost it’s true identity… but House did lost it’s identity too… (electro house and progressive house are more pop, disco, trancy and electro than house…)

2- Progressive House and Electro House fans are hits-eaters… they’ll forsake house as soon as the wave is gone… Trance fans are dedicated and really love the genre…

3- Trance was born as a underground style… and it’s not a shame to go back to it… it needs to go back to it’s original sense and cause… and evolve from there, that’s the only way to keep it’s loyal fans and retake it’s full place…

4- Hardstyle is taking over the place of Trance as the hard kicked and supersaw energetic anthems… Fact: Hardstyle killed Hard-Trance…

dude…honestly? i know this article was written to address a topic that has been coming up more and more frequently in EDM circles but the plain truth is that all artists evolve and all audiences evolve. It’s a chicken/egg situation and no one will know exactly how it got started but this kind of gradual change in the style of music owes itself to so many different factors…don’t fight it. if you like something else, listen to it. if you like what is currently labeled as trance, listen to it. if you want to argue about what trance/house is, by all means, do it. but don’t expect your arguments to be accepted across the board. at the end of the day what matters is whether or not you enjoy whats being put out by our beloved artists. if you think a genre should be different, start making your own music! (i mean that sincerely!)

I personally agree with the examples you gave to us. This stuff right there is real Trance music. But then I must disagree, as Trance Music is not dead. If you keep your examples and keep yourself orientated to that, believe me you will find some good later stuff. Hallucinogen is awesome to start with – the album “The Lone Deranger (9 track special German Edition)”. Or Back to Space by Artifact 303, not too old yet – 2011. Born Underwater by Merr0w (2009), Wizards from othe Future by Agneton (2012), Light the Mind by Mindelight (2006) – just great stuff, nothing like that modern club-housed watered down Ibiza electro thingy. Compilations like Innerself (compiled by Onionbrain), Sundrops (compiled by anoebis & mars), organika (compiled by shake). Well, this is just a small amount of what I found and collected recently. I know it is not that easy to get your hands on the real stuff. But everytime I do so, I appreciate it a lot. Once I lost it too. I got sucked up by that dull and lame handsup stuff (started around 1999?), that irritating at best dream house that started in the late 1995 (I never get it how people confused it with Trance and still confuse it) that got vomited into our faces and the latest crap spit out by Scooter. Artists like ATB, B.B.E., Robert Miles and whatever they were called almost killed it + the media that tricked me into believing what was happening to Trance, yet nothing happened to Trance as it was. But shit got labelled Trance. Tiesto, Paul Oakenfold, Above & Beyond and many more like these people aren’t producing Trance at all. Now I’m confused again how people can miss it that hard. But than I have to remember when Robert Miles and his clones walked this planet and people started to call their stuff Trance. Same thing here. Some people with main influence on the mainstream media didn’t get it right and the irritated and confused are following. All the folks that just want to belong to the big Trance Nation, yet failing to understand why they are walking into the wrong direction and people like us get the boots by telling some pieces of truth.

And what is this EDM thing anyway? I followed some of the stuff given here by Ravi. Sander van Doorn? His stuff does not include a little piece of the Spirit of what makes Trance, well, Trance. And who the hell is Steve Aoki or that Laidback Luke? It really hurts to read something like this: “I’ve never actually been into trance, so I’m trying to incorporate it into my sound now. And trance 2.0 for me is bringing the epicness of trance and fusing it with the grooviness and sexiness of electro house.” Laidback Luke couldn’t dish it out more rotten egg smelling than that, could he? That freak of nature has the guts to say that he incorporates Trance into his music, though he never ever has any idea what Trance is all about? The music of Laidback Luke given in this article just shows how many miles that dude is off the road. None of the pieces represented here show any sign of Trance. Whatever one must call Trance 2.0, don’t do that. Call it “whatever 2.0” (like oh so yes, WHATEVER, because it doesn’t deserve a proper name) if you must, but do NOT call it Trance.

Now, that “Airwave” isn’t Trance to me too. Want to know why? It is to high pitched for the most part of it. The wave flowing through this track is way to high. Most handsup has this ‘to high pitched pattern’ and stuff that makes it unbearable. Trance shouldn’t be like that or it will give you splitting headache after 10 to 15 minutes of intense listening. Trance must not be made annoying. Or it won’t be Trance anymore. If it gets annoying, it won’t set me as a listener into the state of trance. It won’t take me on a journey to someplace else. It will just kill my nerves. Wrong turn folks, wrong turn. Trance shouldn’t be like House Music as well. Don’t get me wrong. I like good House Music. Yes, even that still exists. But you have to dig some deeper, like with Trance. And Trance shouldn’t be just that modern typical electro mish-mash called EDM. At least I understand somehow why EDM has to exist as a genre. Because it is something on its own. something that does not belong into any existing genre after all. The DJ can take on whatever he/she wants, throw it all together and call it “House”, “Trance”, “Techno”, “Minimal”, “Dub Step” (whatever that is anyway) yet without even understanding his/her own work. Just name it, throw it into the new crowds and there you go. Man what crap happens here. What exactly is EDM? Already forgot about it because every ten seconds another one comes with an explanation or an excuse for EDM.

Trance is not dead. Not even misleading interprets and DJs can kill it. They can create their stuff but not kill Trance by calling something else Trance that isn’t. And we must not let them get away with this.

For what it’s worth, I think the folks saying that -real- trance has just gone somewhat underground to percolate and get inventive while the dubstepping, Dropping bigroom house crowd make their noise are on to something. I’m confident it’ll rise again, and if not overtake the bigroom stuff that’s popular now, it’ll at least stand on an even footing with it, and fans and artists will be able to hear more of what they love at shows, be they diehard trancers, bigroom fanatics, or total newcomers.

I started listening to trance in the early-mid ’00s in my remote little mountainous corner of Washington STATE, and without having access to a lot of shows to go to, I listened to dance music while hiking and such, and later, when I went to college, and began really learning to produce, I started finding ways to combine all kinds of different sounds in ways that I thought sounded neat, while writing music about stuff I know – adventures, traveling, the outdoors, and various combinations of them with friends tossed in.

11 years from when I first heard my first trance tune, now I’m releasing my own particular kind of mutant uplifting hard trance on Drizzly Records, a label that’s been releasing trance, techno, and house since 1993. Anyone here remember Denga & Manus? Dave Joy? Vicky Devine? P.H.A.T.T.? Phalanx? Ace Da Brain? Even Paul Miller and Manuel LeSaux have released on it (and Arctic Moon, too, technically).

I’ve even remixed for an oldschooler like Wavetraxx.

And I know this is going to sound like bragging, and I apologize (I’m just using this to make a point), but he’s remarked to me that I’m part of a “new generation” of artists on Drizzly.

And since I’ve been working really REALLY hard to find a happy compromise between the modern production values and sounds prevalent today, and the uplifting, powerful, epic sounds of the early-mid ’00s (I grew up on DuMonde, Alphazone, Warp Brothers, Mauro Picotto, and E Nomine), I’m really happy to hear that from an old-timer.

If Drizzly is still releasing stuff that alludes to the classics, and if they’re giving a poor shlub from the backwoods of Washington like me a chance to join their ranks, well, I think it means Trance still has a place in the global scene, and will continue to do so for a long time.

We just need to dig in our heels and stay patient. We WILL come back. And we’ll come back louder and better than before!

If someone has not mentioned it earlier, the uplifting type of trance is the only type that is really worth listening to. Artists like Andy Blueman, Alan Morris, Illitheas, Soundlift, Nery, The Noble Six, Innersync, Tranceye, Ronny K etc. This is the only type of sound that “stands out”, since it’s beautiful, innovative, and complex (sounds so much more complex than house music). I can only speak for myself though, everyone have different tastes. But trouse and progressive trance, well, I abandoned it long time ago. If uplifting/melodic trance didn’t exist, I might as well have listened to house rather than this progressive trance stuff because it sounds pretty much the same. 🙂

Allow me to clear things up with some holistic knowledge to the much abated question “Is Trance Dead?” Ultimately I realized after years of debate it depends on what genre of Trance your talking about. Of course hard/tech trance are not dead just yet, but they weren’t ever exactly demanded by the tens of millions or ritually played by the millions for years on end. The type of trance that was adored, and by tens of millions in the most sincere sense was uplifting/progressive/dream/piano trance. This type of trance emerged in the early 90s right after the cold war ended and the world saw a new age, a peak of geo-political peace and socio-economic prosperity never seen before. Lets skip past the pioneering tracks of trance like “Age of Love” in 1990 to where trance had become developed and was actually started to be called trance, giving you chills and thrills- like “Love Stimulation” (1993). Another archetype was Children by Robert Miles (1995). This set the stone for what people truly admired. This type dreamy, positive, and really emotional trance was embraced with open arms like no other genre of EDM upon its emergence.

It continued to be developed combining elements of progressive, psy-trance, and new types of synths n’ strings with soothing vocals through the late 90s and early 2000’s. Balearic house had made it’s way into things as well, because it was a bit close to house, Balearic Trance was sometimes separated from the more emotional classic trance, however was just as beautiful in it’s own beachy, happy go lucky way. Balearic Trance, in my opinion overtook the classic simplistic trance of the 90s, into the 2000s as it was less of an emotional jerk and often included more roaring vocals. Many said “trance died in 2001” because of this shift to a bit more housy and mixed type of Balearic Trance. So if your a trance purist to the extreme you could argue “pure trance” died in 2001, replaced by more upbeat complex, and vocal trance. To me, this is ridiculous, classic 90s trance and more modern 2000s Trance are structurally too similar and both gives great rushes.

What happened in 2001?? People forget the economy was in the tank, the dot-com bubble had burst, however nothing to fear government was here, to lower interest rates to all time lows on mortgages, bringing the economic prosperity back, and thus happy vibes to create some fresh happy trance. Things continued as normal, in fact better than normal, trance was making it’s biggest commercial peak in 2003-2004. Although house was becoming more and more prominent, it hadn’t overtaken trance yet in the limelight. Uplifting trance began to mutate with house, it wasn’t uncommon to hear emerging big DJ’s play housy progressive trance in the same set as other more real trance. It was still embraced by many because it simply sounded beautiful and soft to the ear. A few years went by THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED.

Around 2007 a new massive sounding sub-genre was forming- DEEP AND TRANCY PROGRESSIVE HOUSE. Faxing Berlin by Deadmau5 (2007) is a perfect example of this new commercial genre. 4 am by Kaskade is another track of Deep trancy progressive house that the masses had become confused with actual trance, as well as angel on my shoulder, and move for me- I call it the Kaskade effect. If anyone didn’t realize the parallels of the recession of 2008 and these deep house songs becoming mainstreamed yet, just watch. THEN (once again) the economy had become very shaky, the big banks had gotten greedy and made bad bets, the terrible economic crisis affected music, movies, television, our quality of life, and even… Trance! Since late 2007 trance had begun mutating just to keep itself in the spotlight, causing confusion among everyone who didn’t have a reference point to the golden days of what trance really sounded like. 2008 was the year of candy trance- listen to DJ eco- Tonight is Forever, and Daniel Kandi – Nova. Tracks like these had become the definition of trance for the youngsters who didn’t know better. Candy trance is extremely “happy” atmospheric up-beat trance combined with very high pitched synths. People were complaining no doubt, but many people were still satisfied since this trance still followed the same formula as the former type. It was just sped up with sound effects galore. THEN THE ECONOMY BUSTED- March 2009 it was at it’s lowest point ever, people everywhere were losing their homes, their lives and their dignity. The happy go lucky atmosphere everyone had become accustomed to since the early 90s had finally busted. No more easy money- wars raging- no more happy go lucky. The golden era of trance was officially sealed in the coffin. It was over, and everyone knew it, but not everyone wanted to admit it. Real Trance only surfaced at massive raves for another year, and loyal clubs for a couple years after at most. Going back to why this all happened, WHY trance is dead, AND why it will never come back: too big to fail.

The very week “too big to fail” was announced the track that confused it all: I Remember by Deadmau5 & Kaskade had come out. The track’s very name and lyrics said it all. I remember, I remember. The future was no longer going to be better, the only thing left was to remember how good it used to be. It was extremely catchy, deep, and combined trance auras with house formulas- TRANCY PROGRESSIVE HOUSE (trouse). The track rose to uptmost glory right after the stock market collapsed to its all time low in March 2009. It became #1 worldwide, people had it on repeat 100x over. I had it on repeat 100x over. It wasn’t the cause of the death of trance, but it sure sealed the identity of trance. To this day I don’t know of a song quite like it, maybe it was it’s own hype that sealed itself as the new major player on the dance scene. Tiesto’s Kaleidoscope Album, Armin’s single- Broken Tonight, ATB’s 2009 Album, etc. settled the debate, they were all producing trancy HOUSE not trance itself. It seemed the problems of the world were so overbearing that trance’s biggest creators had to turn their back on trance to house, just in order to make profit and keep at the top, and only for a few more years. Now we are in 2014, there has been no cycle in the economy, just governments to this day carelessly pumping trillions to keep going what was crashed in 2009. If trance ever was going to come back fresh and inspired, now it can be guaranteed it will not. However, to end this on a positive note, let’s look back, NO OTHER dance genre like Uplifting Trance had ever become so demanded and so consistently popular, and lets face it, SO AMAZING. Trance it seemed, was a musical love letter to the world on how to enjoy life to the fullest, and how to do it best, with love, empathy, and never to forget, like this article said, it’s about the journey not the destination.

Allow me to clear things up with some holistic knowledge to the much abated question “Is Trance Dead?” Ultimately I realized after years of debate it depends on what genre of Trance your talking about. Of course hard/tech trance are not dead just yet, but they weren’t ever exactly demanded by the tens of millions or ritually played by the millions for years on end. The type of trance that was adored, and by tens of millions in the most sincere sense was uplifting/progressive/dream/piano trance. This type of trance emerged in the early 90s right after the cold war ended and the world saw a new age, a peak of geo-political peace and socio-economic prosperity never seen before. Lets skip past the pioneering tracks of trance like “Age of Love” in 1990 to where trance had become developed and was actually started to be called trance, giving you chills and thrills- like “Love Stimulation” (1993). Another archetype was Children by Robert Miles (1995). This set the stone for what people truly admired. This type dreamy, positive, and really emotional trance was embraced with open arms like no other genre of EDM upon its emergence.

It continued to be developed combining elements of progressive, psy-trance, and new types of synths n’ strings with soothing vocals through the late 90s and early 2000′s. Balearic house had made it’s way into things as well, because it was a bit close to house, Balearic Trance was sometimes separated from the more emotional classic trance, however was just as beautiful in it’s own beachy, happy go lucky way. Balearic Trance, in my opinion overtook the classic simplistic trance of the 90s, into the 2000s as it was less of an emotional jerk and often included more roaring vocals. Many said “trance died in 2001″ because of this shift to a bit more housy and mixed type of Balearic Trance. So if your a trance purist to the extreme you could argue “pure trance” died in 2001, replaced by more upbeat complex, and vocal trance. To me, this is ridiculous, classic 90s trance and more modern 2000s Trance are structurally too similar and both gives great rushes.

What happened in 2001?? People forget the economy was in the tank, the dot-com bubble had burst, however nothing to fear government was here, to lower interest rates to all time lows on mortgages, bringing the economic prosperity back, and thus happy vibes to create some fresh happy trance. Things continued as normal, in fact better than normal, trance was making it’s biggest commercial peak in 2003-2004. Although house was becoming more and more prominent, it hadn’t overtaken trance yet in the limelight. Uplifting trance began to mutate with house, it wasn’t uncommon to hear emerging big DJ’s play housy progressive trance in the same set as other more real trance. It was still embraced by many because it simply sounded beautiful and soft to the ear. A few years went by THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED.

Around 2007 a new massive sounding sub-genre was forming- DEEP AND TRANCY PROGRESSIVE HOUSE. Faxing Berlin by Deadmau5 (2007) is a perfect example of this new commercial genre. 4 am by Kaskade is another track of Deep trancy progressive house that the masses had become confused with actual trance, as well as angel on my shoulder, and move for me- I call it the Kaskade effect. If anyone didn’t realize the parallels of the recession of 2008 and these deep house songs becoming mainstreamed yet, just watch. THEN (once again) the economy had become very shaky, the big banks had gotten greedy and made bad bets, the terrible economic crisis affected music, movies, television, our quality of life, and even… Trance! Since late 2007 trance had begun mutating just to keep itself in the spotlight, causing confusion among everyone who didn’t have a reference point to the golden days of what trance really sounded like. 2008 was the year of candy trance- listen to DJ eco- Tonight is Forever, and Daniel Kandi – Nova. Tracks like these had become the definition of trance for the youngsters who didn’t know better. Candy trance is extremely “happy” atmospheric up-beat trance combined with very high pitched synths. People were complaining no doubt, but many people were still satisfied since this trance still followed the same formula as the former type. It was just sped up with sound effects galore. THEN THE ECONOMY BUSTED- March 2009 it was at it’s lowest point ever, people everywhere were losing their homes, their lives and their dignity. The happy go lucky atmosphere everyone had become accustomed to since the early 90s had finally busted. No more easy money- wars raging- no more happy go lucky. The golden era of trance was officially sealed in the coffin. It was over, and everyone knew it, but not everyone wanted to admit it. Real Trance only surfaced at massive raves for another year, and loyal clubs for a couple years after at most. Going back to why this all happened, WHY trance is dead, AND why it will never come back: too big to fail.

The very week “too big to fail” was announced the track that confused it all: I Remember by Deadmau5 & Kaskade had come out. The track’s very name and lyrics said it all. I remember, I remember. The future was no longer going to be better, the only thing left was to remember how good it used to be. It was extremely catchy, deep, and combined trance auras with house formulas- TRANCY PROGRESSIVE HOUSE (trouse). The track rose to uptmost glory right after the stock market collapsed to its all time low in March 2009. It became #1 worldwide, people had it on repeat 100x over. I had it on repeat 100x over. It wasn’t the cause of the death of trance, but it sure sealed the identity of trance. To this day I don’t know of a song quite like it, maybe it was it’s own hype that sealed itself as the new major player on the dance scene. Tiesto’s Kaleidoscope Album, Armin’s single- Broken Tonight, ATB’s 2009 Album, etc. settled the debate, they were all producing trancy HOUSE not trance itself. It seemed the problems of the world were so overbearing that trance’s biggest creators had to turn their back on trance to house, just in order to make profit and keep at the top, and only for a few more years. Now we are in 2014, there has been no cycle in the economy, just governments to this day carelessly pumping trillions to keep going what was crashed in 2009. If trance ever was going to come back fresh and inspired, now it can be guaranteed it will not. However, to end this on a positive note, let’s look back, NO OTHER dance genre like Uplifting Trance had ever become so demanded and so consistently popular, and lets face it, SO AMAZING. Trance it seemed, was a musical love letter to the world on how to enjoy life to the fullest, and how to do it best, with love, empathy, and never to forget, like this article said, it’s about the journey not the destination.

I find it funny that people’s definition of “real Trance” is either only the same-old-same uplifting that apparently is now being championed by some Adam Ellis, Ian Standerwick and Allen & Envy (precursors to Daniel Kandi, Aly & Fila, Guiseppe Ottaviani etc) OR the Psy/Goa Trance in which every friggin title refers to space, sci-if or science.

Remember Eye-Q Records and their Trance Classics? If that is the German-rooted birth of Trance, neither of the above mentioned genres honour it. For me, my modern Trance Fix is easily offered by people like Airwave, The Digital Blonde, Terra Ferma, Union Jack, Relaunch, Winkee, Orkidea, and so on. It can be a bit Proggy or a bit Psy at times and especially TF/UJ can be a bit minimalistic but overall there are always long, entrancing progressions, synths that massage your eardrums and melodies that make you dream. And if it has energy it doesn’t do so with noise riffs or farts or generic degga degga beats.

Trance is dead? Perhaps. But if it’s still alive it is so much more than your cookie-cutter uplifting or elitists’ Psy/Goa doctrine.

Trance is far from dead and here’s why: Trance is evolving as a sound itself. These days electro, house, progressive house and trance share similar sounds and are borrowing sounds from each other. Moreover, you look at the bookings of trance festivals all over the world and you see they are doing strong. The A State Of Trance will have 23 festivals this year, up from a mere 7 in 2014. The Armin Only tour was sold out every show. Argentina has trance as the mainstream genre. The Indian music scene greatly attracts trance artists such as Shogun, Andrew Rayel and Richard Durand on a regular basis. Recently there has been a resurgence in the harder style 138 BPM genre of trance, led by producers like John O’Callaghan, Photographer, Bryan Kearney etc. Trance is dead? Trance is evolving.